USS Wharton (AP-7)
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Wharton |
| Namesake: | Franklin Wharton |
| Laid down: | 8 October 1918 |
| Launched: | 20 July 1919 |
| Completed: | 24 September 1921 |
| Acquired: | 8 November 1939 |
| Commissioned: | 7 December 1940 |
| Decommissioned: | 26 March 1947 |
| Struck: | 4 April 1947 |
| Honors and awards: |
3 battle stars (World War II) |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, 21 March 1952 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Troop transport |
| Displacement: | 12,250 long tons (12,447 t) light 21,900 long tons (22,251 t) full |
| Length: | 636 ft 2 in (193.90 m) |
| Beam: | 72 ft (22 m) |
| Draft: | 31 ft 3 in (9.53 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbine |
| Speed: | 16.6 knots (30.7 km/h; 19.1 mph) |
| Complement: | 666 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | • 4 × single 5"/38 caliber guns • 8 × .50 cal. machine guns |
USS Wharton (AP-7) was a troop transport and hospital ship in the service of the United States Navy during World War II. Originally built for the Munson Steamship Line as the cargo liner SS Southern Cross in 1921, she was acquired by the Navy as World War II approached and, once the United States became a combatant, she served as a troop transport and hospital ship in the Pacific Theatre. At war's end, she returned Stateside proudly with three battle stars.
SS Southern Cross operated in the South American trade from 1921 until acquired by the Navy from the Maritime Commission on 8 November 1939. Two days later, the ship was renamed Wharton and designated AP-7. She was converted to a troop transport by the Todd Shipbuilding Corp., in the Robbins Drydock in Erie Basin at Brooklyn, New York. The transport was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 7 December 1940, Capt. Ernest L. Vanderkloot in command.
Read more about USS Wharton (AP-7): World War II Pacific Theatre Operations, First Wartime Operations, Invasion of The Marshall Islands, Temporary Duty As A Hospital Ship, Running Aground At Manus, Assisting The Wounded At Guam, Supporting Invasion of The Philippines, Supporting The Okinawa Invasion, End-of-War Activities, Bikini Atoll A-Bomb Testing, Post-War Deactivation and Decommissioning, Awards
Famous quotes containing the word wharton:
“I am secretly afraid of animals.... I think it is because of the usness in their eyes, with the underlying not-usness which belies it, and is so tragic a reminder of the lost age when we human beings branched off and left them: left them to eternal inarticulateness and slavery. Why? their eyes seem to ask us.”
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937)